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Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

aljazeera.com

101–110 of 195 posts

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#101

The Ukrainian-Russo war has shown the military the power of offensive drones. You think they are going to allow civilians to own such powerful potential weapons in the future? I think offensive drone warfare is just scratching the surface. I can think of a few modifications to drones, I've yet to see in Ukraine, that could increase their lethality 10x.

Assault Rifles seem to be ok for the US government to place into the hands of US civilians.

^^^ this comment was posted by someone who does not know what an assault rifle is. it is very difficult and expensive to get ahold of a assault rifle these days and has been for almost 40 years.

though yeah i think we should repeal that law, there is nothing wrong with civilians owning assault rifles. the federal government is literally not allowed to pass or enforce laws against this because it clearly infringes the individual right to keep and bear arms. we can only hope some time in the next few years the NFA, GCA and FOPA are struck down, along with all the asinine regulation that has forced so many small gun manufacturers out of business, increased gun prices for American consumers and retarded innovation in civilian small arms.

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#102
post #89

They are absolutely right to do this, and private users should be wary as well. DJI's application (Mimo) has been banned from the Android Play Store for some time, with no explanation given by DJI. They offer an APK to side load, which is completely unsupervised, and requires access to your phone's accurate location and other invasive permissions no matter which of their products you are using. This is an important d…

>This is an important detail. Your phone location might be helpful when using drones (though GPS should be on the drone, not your phone) I'd imagine it would be important for "come back home" like functionality in case drone loses signal or whatever > but there is absolutely no reason to use it for something like a phone stabilizer, which it absolutely requires and will not let you continue unless you turn it on App…

The "come back home" functionality relies on the GPS on the drone, but the "follow me while filming" needs the phone's. I saw quite a lot of motorcycling vlogs using that feature.

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#103
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a fairly broad problem across the whole phone app world, isn't it? For example, I bought an iOS app for LAN analysis, but then deleted it when it turned out it wouldn't work unless you gave it access to your physical location (I assume that was for their data marketing side business). I don't know how iOS works, but on Android location data permissions are requested for anything involving networking (includ…

If it's really a case of gating permissions, I still don't like it. I used a few apps that utilize Bluetooth without asking for location, even when they aren't the obvious use case (like headphones), although admittedly it's been a while since then. Afair, I don't recall the Mimo app asking me to turn on wifi for the stabilizer. But maybe yes and I just turned it off after connecting to the device. The operation of t…

For the majority of smartphone's existence no permission was necessary, probably because no one ever considered it. Then it was learned stores, for example Target, were using their mobile app to broadcast Bluetooth signals in order to track shoppers movement around the store. So around 2019 Android added it to the general location permission to use Bluetooth for anything other than audio transmission to/from a paired device if device pairing is handled by the OS, hidden from the app.

In late 2021 Android changed it to a separate "ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" permission, while Apple still keeps it under the general bluetooth permission (while the popup mentions it can be used to track your location).

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#105
I use a 5 year old app on an airgapped device along with old firmware on my drones for precisely this reason. It has no nanny features and allows me to be responsible for my own actions without surveillance.

With that said - yes, my drone is registered.

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#106
post #14

Do other countries put US hardware and software companies on blacklists for their involvement with DoD? If so, then I think quite a few major US tech companies would be unable to do business outside the US and Europe.

I guess you have not been following the various EU rulings that say that EU citizen data must not flow to U.S. companies because it could be collected by U.S. intelligence services. “Google Analytics Ruled Illegal” would be a typical headline.

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russians, like Ukrainians, and all other government forces in the world, have extensive experience triangulating transmitted signals in warzones. Considering that these drones rely on bidirectional communication, it is obvious where the pilot is without hacking DJI. A drone operator in a warzone appears like an active microwave oven with its door stuck open operating from a deserted area. Militaries can triangulate t…

Exactly. During WWII the already had radars enough to detect periscopes sticking out of sea surface from tens of miles. They were also able to triangulate subs by their short transmits anywhere on the Atlantic with pinpoint precision. People very much underestimate technical military capabilities. The issues with militaries are of a different kind -- sifting through deluge of information, prioritising, making right i…

I think periscope detection is only possible since the 1970s

  The opportunity to detect periscopes was exploited in early radar experiments that prompted the development of the AN/APS-116 radar manufactured by Texas Instruments in the 1970s. The AN/APS-116 is an Xband, high-resolution, fast scanning system developed specifically to provide a periscope detection capability on the carrier-based S-3 aircraft. The AN/APS-137 is an upgrade of this radar used primarily on the S-3; a limited number are also used on the land-based P-3 aircraft.
https://www.jhuapl.edu/Content/techdigest/pdf/V18-N01/18-01-...

Re: Pentagon Puts DJI on Blacklist

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is interesting (broadcast to whom exactly?) my main point is that DJI demands access to your smartphone location even for products that clearly have no use for this information, while giving you a sideloaded app which is banned from the official store. To me, these point to a trust issue.

> While this is interesting (broadcast to whom exactly?) It's hard to find any information about how Remote-ID is supposed to work, but in theory the ID packets are sent by WiFi NAN and Bluetooth so that they can be received by anyone in the radio range (which is quite important for authorities to track down violators, e.g. people flying around hospital helipads). Unfortunately, current phones seem to lack support ha…

>which is quite important for authorities to track down violators

no, it is not. it is yet another power grab by the FAA and federal authorities to increase the surveillance state.

I should not be required to broadcast my signal to the federal government to prove I am not going to commit a crime, that is the exact backwards of how the legal system is suppose to work

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